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Little Fires Everywhere

A Novel

--Everything I Never Told You--6Jodi Picoult,--Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood 6 and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Ng’s latest starts off with, well, little fires everywhere in the Richardsons' house, which is burning to the ground in Shaker Heights, Ohio. It appears to be an act of arson. So who started the fires? About a year earlier, artist Mia Warren and her teenage daughter Pearl arrived in Shaker Height... Read More »

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After the first 90 pages, I must admit that I began skimming, just picking up the threads of the story, hoping it would develop into something meaningful. I couldn't find it. For me, this was just a piece of YA entertainment. It escapes being formulaic by throwing in a mystery of sorts. Big disappointment.

A moving and compelling domestic drama that is as tense as a good thriller. Set in the bland, affluent town of Shaker Heights, the novel brings together several families and scrutinizes their flaws and conflicts. While I agree with one commentator that the book doesn't really tie things up neatly, I don't think that's a problem as, frequently, life does not wrap up neatly. The book explores familiar territory (ennui and unhappiness in the suburbs, a la Updike and Cheever), but finds a fresh perspective and gets away from the white maleness that usually dominates in these narratives. A very strong second book from Celeste Ng.

I just finished, and am COMPLETELY underwhelmed. I feel like I read a different book than all of America, who seems to be under some weird love spell with this.

If I were 30 years younger and still reading YA fiction, I would have like it. It is pretty juvenile, even though the topics are serious. I did not care at all about the abortion, fire, or surrogate scandal because I did not like any of the characters.

I would not recommend this to anyone, so that is my advice to you if you are on the fence. Hop down and read something else!

I was very disappointed in this book. The beginning intrigued me but the end did not satisfy me. I was very unhappy with the portrayal of the teenagers. I have four children as well and cannot imagine the dynamics as such.

A HUGE THUMBS UP!!! As the lives of two families intertwine, secrets are revealed and sparks are ignited, both figuratively and literally, in the absorbing domestic drama, LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE. The setting is integral to the book’s plot. It’s the late 1990s, and author Celeste Ng deftly inserts references to the culture and politics of this time period within her storyline. Most of the action takes place in Shaker Heights, the idyllic suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and its rule-based order will be a source of conflict for some of the characters. This is a multi-layered story that explores the maternal bond in various forms, but also the impacts race, social class, and choice have on the lives of the individuals involved as well as their community at large. Ultimately this is a compelling, character-driven story that will challenge readers’ thinking and opinions as the plot progresses. One of the best novels I’ve read recently, LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE is an excellent choice for book groups.

I loved this book- the way the characters were written and their relationships with one another. While I thought I was initially being bogged down with mundane details, it turned into a lovely story about families, and what we would do to protect them. Absolutely stunning.

Thinking of how to sum up this novel, I landed on the word “challenging”. Ng sets out to challenge the beliefs of her characters as well as her readers. If you’re like me, you don’t want an author to tell you “cry now,” “laugh now,” “turn the page now,” “believe everything this character says,” etc. I appreciate Ng’s way of telling a lovely story that presents fully fleshed-out characters, ones I learned to care about, ones whose experiences altered their thoughts along with my own. Overall a great read.

“All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches. Sparks leapt like fleas and spread as rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles. Better to control that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like an Olympic torch. Or, perhaps, to tend it carefully like an eternal flame; a reminder of light and goodness that would never - could never - set anything ablaze. Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in captivity. The key, she thought, was to avoid conflagration.” - p. 161

“One had followed the rules, and one had not. But the problem with rules... was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on.” - p. 269

“Sometimes, just when you think everything’s gone, you find a way… Like after a prairie fire… It seems like the end of the world. The earth is all scorched and black and everything green is gone. But after the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow… People are like that, too, you know. They start over. They find a way.” - p. 295